Confidential
by badly-knitted
Summary: Dee thinks there are definite advantages to being involved with his work partner. For one thing, they don't need to keep details of their work from each other. Set after Vol. 7.


**Title:** Confidential

 **Author:** badly-knitted

 **Characters:** Dee, Ryo

 **Rating:** PG

 **Setting:** After Vol. 7

 **Summary:** Dee thinks there are definite advantages to being involved with his work partner. For one thing, they don't need to keep details of their work from each other.

 **Written For:** The tw100 prompt 'Confidential'.

 **Word Count:** 687

 **Disclaimer:** I don't own FAKE, or the characters. They belong to the wonderful Sanami Matoh.

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All cops learned from the start that the details of open cases, and any closed cases that had yet to go to trial, had to remain confidential. You didn't talk about them outside of work, not even to your nearest and dearest, because it was far too easy for people to accidentally leak information without meaning to, and the next thing you knew, it was all over the news. Cases could so easily fall apart that way, leading to the guilty party either evading arrest, or getting off on a technicality. Nobody wanted that, except perhaps some of the high-priced defence attorneys who'd gotten rich by representing scumbags.

Dee had been in plenty of relationships where his girlfriend or boyfriend of the moment tried to get him to tell them all the juicy gossip about the cases he was working on, and he'd told them all the same thing; that he wasn't allowed to discuss cases with anyone not involved, and wouldn't even if he could because they would sleep a lot better if they didn't know. Some of his lovers didn't take the rebuff too well, saying if he really loved them he'd tell them. That was usually when he broke up with them and moved on. They just didn't get it and never would.

It made him wonder sometimes how cops in long-term relationships with, or even married to, non-cops coped with having to keep major events of their workday from their other half, only able to talk about their jobs in general terms. "Caught a new case today and it's a rough one, probably going to involve overtime." It had to be tough; made him all the more grateful that his significant other was not only a fellow cop but also his work partner. At home as well as a work, he and Ryo could discuss everything about the cases they were working on, never having to keep anything from each other. Confidentiality didn't apply because they both already knew all the facts of their cases and could go over them anytime they wanted to, bouncing ideas and theories back and forth, until something clicked.

That in turn made him wonder about the advisability of the rule against two cops who worked together starting a romantic relationship. Surely the person you worked the closest with was the best person to be romantically involved with, as long as you didn't allow relationship issues to get in the way of doing the job. It took away any need for secrecy and ensured both partners had a vested interest in protecting each other.

Working with Ryo was actually easier and less distracting for Dee now they were a couple than it had been before, when he'd been understandably obsessed with seducing his partner. Both of them were a lot happier, less stressed, and better able to focus on their work than before. Everybody won; well, aside from the bad guys. When it came to closing cases, Ryo and Dee now had the second best record in the district, which was something to be proud of, although they didn't let it go to their heads. There were always plenty more crimes to be solved.

They still left work at the office as much as possible, because cops needed to get their heads out of solving crimes when they weren't on the clock, otherwise they could burn themselves out, but if one of them did happen to have a brainwave about any of the cases they were working while they were at home, they could talk it through and decide between them whether or not it was an avenue of investigation worth exploring. It simplified things.

A relationship like theirs wouldn't work for all cops of course; making relationships between partners compulsory rather than frowned upon would be doomed to failure, because you couldn't just shove two people together and expect them to fall in love. Dee just thought there shouldn't be restrictions against it. Maybe someday there wouldn't be, but until that day came, he'd probably be better off keeping his thoughts on the benefits of fraternisation confidential.

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The End


End file.
